Students attending San Marcos CISD schools will see changes to school buses over the coming years, in compliance with Senate Bill 546, which went into effect Sept. 1, 2025.
At a glance
During the 2025 legislative session, the Texas Senate passed SB 546, which requires public school-operated buses to be equipped with three-point seat belts.
School districts have until Sept. 1, 2029, to comply with the law. To help facilitate this, the Texas Education Agency set guidelines, including required reporting on the status of buses and the estimated cost to bring them into compliance. Older buses without the proper safety equipment must either be replaced or retrofitted, a process that removes and replaces the seats.
Sorting out details
Director of Transportation Anthony Shields said they examined the cost of retrofitting older buses with new seats with three-point seatbelts. Due to various factors, including necessary floor replacements and recertification by manufacturers, he recommended that buses be replaced rather than refurbished.
“Some of the buses that we have in our fleet ... we’d be putting more money into the bus for the retrofitting process than what the bus is actually worth right now,” Shields said at the meeting.
Shields also provided a tentative replacement schedule for the next few years.
- January: purchase 10 buses with 2023 bond supplement funds
- July: purchase 10 buses with 2023 bond supplement funds
- January 2027: utilize monies in the 2027-2028 transportation approved budget for five buses
- January 2028: utilize monies from the fiscal year’s transportation budget for five buses
Also on the agenda
Another item on the agenda proposed the purchase of 10 new buses for approximately $1.81 million, in accordance with the timeline Shields provided for bus replacement. This item was tabled until the next budget workshop.
“Ten [buses] on first glance with another 10 in July seems very excessive to me with our budget condition,” board member John McGlothlin, who motioned to table the item, said.
